Bleaching gels for tooth whitening are known in the prior art. Many of these gels utilize a peroxide of some form to bleach stains off of teeth, both natural and artificial. It should be noted that the term “teeth” or “tooth” as used in this specification and the appended claims includes both natural and artificial teeth. This goal is accomplished because peroxides tend to be unstable and have a number of free-radical oxygen atoms which bind with the compounds and elements within staining material, thereby breaking up the stain on an atomic level and removing it. Various methods of improving peroxide performance are also known in the prior art, as anything that will stimulate free-radical oxygen production will generally improve basic performance of a bleaching product. The use of iodine, in particular potassium iodide, with hydrogen peroxide is also known in the field of antiseptics. The use of the hydrogen peroxide as an astringent and the iodine as an antiseptic provide a useful combination when treating minor cut and abrasions. These combinations rely on the disinfecting power of the iodine for their utility, and prefer that the iodine is active and present. This occurs in an acidic environment and leaves the resultant solution of iodine and hydrogen peroxide with the all too familiar reddish-brown staining color associated with antiseptic iodine. There is even some prior art that suggests the use of potassium iodide and peroxide as a cleaner for contact lenses, which requires a pH above 6 in order to limit the iodine coloration, but this still relies on the iodine as a disinfectant and is stated to be used in a preferred pH range of around 7. Starting at a level of approximately 7.5 pH, the relation between tri-iodide molecules and oxygen radicals in the solution changes as the iodine is kept bound in solution as a catalyst and more radicals are released. While it is known that O2 is formed from the reaction, free-radical Oxygen production from the reaction has been, at best, ignored. The parent Application has gone into extensive detail in the prior art and the reader is directed to that discussion, which has already been incorporated by reference above.
The present invention, in its preferred embodiment, is a bleaching gel for teeth presented in a binary solution system, utilizing potassium iodide as a catalyst for generation of free-radical oxygen. The gel is kept in a binary solution, having two separate components that are combined when desired to be used.
The present invention represents a departure from the prior art in that the bleaching gels of the present invention utilize iodide, which precipitates to the stain-causing elemental form at acidic pH levels, as a catalyst for creating bleaching oxygen radicals in peroxides, thereby increasing whitening effectiveness.